Rem 700 Bedding question......need help

I bought a new Rem 700 XCR in 338 RUM a few weeks back, I didn't like the factory stock, it quite possibly might be the worst POC I've ever seen. And I really didn't like it after I shot the rifle, accuracy was horable and the recoil was quite severe. I didn't want to put a break on the rifle because it is going to be a hunting rifle not a bench gun and didn't want to sacrifice the extra lenght and noise that would entail. So I bought a Knoxx's compstock with the recoil suppressor in the butt, it works great the felt recoil was reduced I would say to less than a 270 Win. I sat down last Sunday and ran 31 rnds through it for load development, accuracy improved quite a bit in fact I had a couple loads that were printing below 1MOA where before it was printing 2.5MOA. My problem is that the barrel is hugging the left side of the barrel channel so I need to hog out some material and rebed the rifle. So my question is how do you make sure that you get the barrel centered in the channel and still not put stress on the action? Any help you fellas could lend would be greatly appriciated

After routing out the receiver section in the stock, cleaning the stripped receiver, then packing the holes and recesses full of modeling clay, I put the thinnest coat of Simonize car wax on as a release agent. I put O-rings on the barrel to hold it centered in the barrel channel. Thickness is determined by the clearance between the barrel channel and the barrel. Masking tape works but it's harder to remove. After the Devcon Plastic Steel's been mixed and poured in the properly prepared stock receiver section, the O-ringed barrel fits nicely and it's easy to put in the Simonized stock screws just enough to center them but without pulling the receiver too far down into the stock. Taping the O-ringed barrel in place keeps it perfectly aligned while the epoxy cures without any stress whatsoever on the receiver.

After the epoxy's cured, tapping out the barreled receiver is easy and so is cleanup.

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I bought a new Rem 700 XCR in 338 RUM a few weeks back, I didn't like the factory stock, it quite possibly might be the worst POC I've ever seen. .......So I bought a Knoxx's compstock with the recoil suppressor in the butt.....My problem is that the barrel is hugging the left side of the barrel channel so I need to hog out some material and rebed the rifle. So my question is how do you make sure that you get the barrel centered in the channel and still not put stress on the action?

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First get the current barrel channel correct. Center the barrel by sanding the tight side. Don't hawg it out, that's what I do and I always go too far and it always looks to rough.

With the barrel centered before you remove material around the action you will be more apt to have things aligned when you bed the action.

I like using masking tape as the thickness can be adjusted very accurately due to its thinness.

I suppose you are talking skim bedding here vs pillar then skim bedding.

Kirby Allen presented a very good discussion on bedding awhile ago. I searched for a while but couldn't find it. It was top cabin instruction.

Also, want to get rid of that POC stock? I don't even know what an XCR stock looks like. Its probably one of those hollow sounding things? I can always use candidates for my airbrush practice. So far I can make a POC look like its covered w/C... [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

__________________I may be the slowest guy on the mountain . . . . but . . . . I'm on the mountain!

Thanks guys for the info, I too remember the very excellent post Kirby made and spent a considerable amount of time trying to search for it and couldn't find it either.

I've milled the inside of the stock out with my end mill for the proper clearences and I have the inletting bolts on order for the job, I think I have a pretty good handle on it now but I have a couple of questions let unanwsered, how do you handle the box mag area? do you install the box and just put release agent on it? or do you fill the void with modeling clay? The stock already has aluminum pillars in it and I left them stock height and milled down everything around them a bit. Thanks again

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how do you handle the box mag area? do you install the box and just put release agent on it? or do you fill the void with modeling clay?

[/ QUOTE ]I've filled in the void with modeling clay. One can use a few pieces of scrap wood to take up some of the space and the rest modeling clay.

After the bedding job's done and the rifle's reassembled, be sure there is nothing touching the sides of the magazine nor does the magazine touch the trigger guard. It has to hang free down from the receiver. Use a piece of thin pasteboard from a cereal box to check for clearance. Some folks epoxy the magazine in the receiver to keep it in the same postion all the time. If the magazine drops down and touches anything, accuracy will suffer.

On the magazine box, thanks for the info now I just have to sit and wait for my extended mag box to show up (should be here tomorrow) so I can mill the reciever and fit the new mag. Then I'll be ready to bed the rifle.

Thank you for posting the link to Kirby's post on bedding to center the barrel thats exactly what I was looking for.